ARTIST TALK: Tactile Memories with artists Angie Marchinkow and Nicole Young

• Date: Saturday, September 28
• Time: 2:00pm - 3:30pm
• Venue: CityScape Community ArtSpace Gallery
• Price: Free, Pay-by-Donation in the gallery available

North Van Arts presents Tactile Memories Artist Talk with Angie Marchinkow and Nicole Young!

Join us at CityScape Community ArtSpace with artists Angie Marchinkow and Nicole Young for a discussion about the exhibition Tactile Memories.

Artist Bios:

Angie Marchinkow (b. 1985) is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist and writer, based in the lakeside city of Kelowna, British Columbia. She finds much of her inspiration from exploring the outdoors, but then combines her external experiences with the internal- the emotions that arise from everyday life experiences, big and small. As an abstract painter, muralist, writer, photographer, and vocalist, her range of work can be found in many projects, including private and commercial collections. She collaborates with other musicians, artists, and photographers to celebrate personal expression and capture beauty.

When working with paint, she draws inspiration for her intuitive abstract works from a focus on her internal emotional dialogue, creating a visual interpretation of her lived experiences. Hand in hand with her poetic writing, her words have become a means of unfolding layers of what she paints on the canvas. Embracing her impulsive and nonlinear train of thought, she sheds light on the full spectrum of deep emotion and what it means to be unabashedly human. To her, “painting is about seeing before you, what is felt or seen within.”

 Nicole Young is a visual artist and art consultant based on the traditional, unceded and occupied territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Wautuh First Nations (Vancouver, BC.) Working at the junction of environmentalism, material exploration, and storytelling, Nicole’s works are as much science experiments as they are conversations on ways to approach climate justice. She combines repurposed painted canvas with thrifted and hand dyed textiles, often sourcing natural materials to create pigments and dyes. This process is a way to deepen her connection with the natural world, and to create a dialogue about waste-free practices. Moving seamlessly between large scale textile installations, works on canvas, garments and graceful drawings, Nicole’s works blend traditional approaches to textile art with gestural, painterly characteristics.

Born in Ontario, Nicole attended the University of British Columbia Okanagan where she received a BFA in Visual Arts and Art History, and studied studio arts and art history at the University of California Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited in Canada and abroad since 2010, and her paintings are in private and corporate collections throughout the globe.

Emily Kirsch, Angie Marchinkow, and Nicole Young work across different mediums in Tactile Memories to make collective touch points. They highlight the importance of taking part in pursuits where we allow ourselves to be guided by interest rather than expectation, as a means to work through our lived experiences. Through bold gestural movements, vivid mark making, and large-scale acts of sewing and rug tufting; these artists demonstrate the physical, emotional, and material aspects of their making processes. By taking on an intuitive approach in their individual art practices, each artist explores the idea of play from a place of curiosity and indulgence. Kirsch, Marchinkow, and Young invite viewers to participate in an inquisitive outlook of the world, by allowing them to engage with what is tangible in this exhibition. Taking the opportunity to play, whether in visual arts or elsewhere, gives us space to access our emotions and better process personal histories, allowing us to interrupt repetition by creating something new.